Thieves bag trophy at UGA

Professor's stuffed elk head poached

Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001

By Joan Stroerjstroer@onlineathens.com

Athens man George Cain thought he had captured his quarry forever when he felled a massive elk with a bow and arrow, got it stuffed for posterity and took it to work. But it turns out the buck didn't stop there.

''This particular elk wandered away from me,'' Cain said.

Local police are searching for a large stuffed elk head owned by Cain that vanished in recent weeks from the comparative anatomy lab at the University of Georgia, where it was being used for instruction.

The mystery of the missing stag has stumped police and professors. The stuffed animal disappeared from a locked room, and the size of the trophy would have prevented a burglar from bagging the big game alone.

It measures 68 inches high and 50 inches wide, with a 6-foot-wide rack of antlers.

Cain, a cellular biology professor, filed a report with UGA police on the burgled buck, and describes it as thin-coated, ''too big to fit in a Suburban,'' and hailing from New Mexico.

Along with being a hunter, Cain belongs to an elk foundation that conserves elk habitat and seeks to reintroduce elk into the remaining wilds of the Eastern seaboard.

One theory of his holds that a band of students carted off his deceased beast to decorate the walls of their apartment or fraternity house.

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, June 15, 2001.